


The Blue Shard

by Anonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26578045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A little farmer wonders about the sky.
Kudos: 1
Collections: Anonymous





	The Blue Shard

**Author's Note:**

> Old stuff. The plot is, of course, not that original.

One day, while walking out the greenhouse after tending the crops, I looked up to the sky. As usual, it was black; a dark and unforgiving color. Being a young child of merely ten of age, I let my curiosity took over and began to wonder. What is lying beyond that veil of darkness that forbids any possible light to shine on the harsh, rugged land?

My hand reached deep inside the pocket of my trousers; a shard that I found a day earlier was inside. It gleamed with a light color unlike that of the sky; it was peaceful and soothing, not depressing. It's a color I didn't know about; its name, or its origins. The shard is drawing some strong feeling and sentiment from the depths of my soul, so much that I did not want to part with it. 

I figured then, that perhaps I should ask about it to someone wise. Not my ever-busy parents, of course. They already had too many things to think about, and asking them about this will probably only earns me a harsh rebuke. Maybe grandfather will have an answer if I ask.

And ask him I did.

He took the shard and examined it for a while, and returned it to my palm after that. He smiled at my question regarding the name of the color.

"I'm not surprised that a young lad such as you did not know about 'blue'. After all, even some adults did not as well," he began. "I suppose I could tell what I've heard from the many tales and books, as my youth were spent studying at night. Come, sit closer, and I will share what little knowledge I have. It will be long, so bear with me."

And bear with him I did.

"It has been said, always, after the age of creation, men were destined to walk only the land. They are not destined to venture outside their boundary, forced to live with other land dwelling races. The sea is the lot of murderous sea serpents, and the lowly simple fishes. The skies, the highest of all planes, are the lot of the two creatures: birds, the messengers of the Gods, and dragons, their guardians, presented as a tribute to the Gods. Such is the order established for all living things.”

However, the ancient humans of unknown origin, not content with their assigned lot, began to break the order. At first constructing simple rafts, the ancient humans from the ancient central continent began to venture out their lands, into the open sea, and plundering the richness below, and then they moved to bigger ships, and began to conquer the lands beyond the central continent, now lost and never to be found again. Sometimes they would succeed, and sometimes they would fell to the natives, who picked up their shipbuilding technologies after intensive studying."

"What happened to that continent?" I interrupted as I felt he had been droning for too long, but grandfather ignored it and kept going, as if he was too immersed in his own story.

"And thus began the Age of Exploration; men venturing outside their lands and into foreign lands, inhabiting many of them, and gather and hoard treasures to enrich their society—no, themselves. Men, satisfied with what the sea has to offer, let their curiosity took over. Many looked up, to the clear blue firmament that gradually changed into dark blue at a fixed period and the majestic flying beasts up there and especially, the fabled floating continents; who knows what sort of secrets, and more importantly, riches, lies within? So they long to reach the skies as well, where they are not allowed to venture. But, feeling the pride after they supposedly mastered the seas, they felt that the taboo put forth by the ancient seers are just lies. But alas, even though their longing of going up is stronger than their longing to the seas, they have no means to travel skywards."

At this point I really didn't want to interrupt for the second time, already feeling mesmerized to the point I felt rigid and unable to do much. I realized I must listen until he is finished, despite the way he spoke very slowly like any elderly were apt to do. The many questions that I have can wait.

And so, wait I did.

"That is, until one of the most renowned ancient scientist whose name was also lost along with his secret, and his colleague, an ancient mage, consulted each other. Mages and scientists have never got along really well, at that time. Before you ask, a mage is a person who could bend the laws of the world using the now lost art of magic. But that's a story for another time. In short, the mage presented what his deep research has given him: the presence of stones with magical properties of unknown origins that he accidentally stumbled upon, that he believed could lift something up after he puts it on a box and it levitates. The scientist was overjoyed, and asked if there was many of it. The mage positively nodded, and promised to continue his research and present him with another samples, along with the promise of the possibility of actually making the stones. Skip the story a bit, and men eventually begun the production of the airships the ancient called the 'Vimanas'. No one really knows what they looked like, but we usually thought it shaped like an ordinary seagoing vessel. The first batch of flights end with horrific results: the dragons, sensing violation, shot down each one of them."

Grandfather paused and took a long breath, looking tired.

"But men are hardworking and stubborn, and their later machines were heavily armed, and in time, the dragons were overpowered and the rest retreated to an unknown place, while some accounts said they became extinct. Either way, they were never heard of again, much like the sea-serpents before them. Thus began the second Age of Exploration, with airships traversing the skies to unknown horizons, landing at many of the floating continents, while more and more magical stones were discovered and manufactured. At all these times, the Gods were silent, despite the sacrilegious behavior of men. Eventually, many of the floating continents, that were revealed out to be powered by magical stones within their bowels, became cities, and trade using vimanas flourished, and with that, the mining of these stones began. The stones' role expanded into powering cities and machines, with little magical tinkering, all thanks to this one initially obscure mage, then hailed as a hero. The distant land below became empty, inhabited only by the pariahs and the poorest, and outlaws."

I felt sleepy. This story took much longer than I had expected. But I was glad I didn't fall asleep and persevere, because of what grandfather said next.

"Times were good, but affront to the Gods are not allowed to last without retribution. Turns out the stones are actually volatile and unstably dangerous, especially near one another. Stocking them makes things worse. That is what the now elderly mage realized too late. People, in their pride, refused to listen despite the respect they have for him, until it was too late. The stones, having used too much, amassed excess energies, coupled with their instability, reached critical level, and the cities began to tear themselves apart. People rushed from their doomed abodes into their airships to escape, but many of them perished in the middle of flight, and finally, in one big explosion, the entire sky cities were gone, blacking out the sky with the polluting residue of the magical stones, taking untold riches and much ancient knowledge with them, including magecraft and science."

After this grandfather looked at me; surely he saw mesmerized expression, because he laughed. "What have you learn?" He asked.

I tried to think of an answer, but it seems the words won't come out. The old man laughed again.

"You see, humbling oneself against what is greater than us is one of the greatest virtues." He said sagely. "Men have not conquered the land, yet they felt they can conquer the skies. Look what happened to them now. Some said the stones were actually given secretly by the Gods as punishment to men, and they had foreseen everything, but whatever the theory is, it proved how we could be easily corrupted. Now go, lad, I am tired."

I nodded and thanked grandfather. Outside his tent, looking at the shard and at the perpetually black sky, I began to wonder if I could one day see the blue skies like what the ancients used to see. But then again, what can a lowly farmer do?


End file.
